Category Archives: 1910’s

Mystery Launch On Slip at St Mary’s Bay

Posted on by
7

46979532_2215898555399007_7846169478944522240_n

Screen Shot 2018-11-27 at 9.28.43 AM

Mystery Launch On Slip at St Mary’s Bay
Today’s photo comes to us via Lew Redwood’s fb (probably taken by Radcliff) & shows an unidentified launch on a slip in the St Mary’s Bay area. The photo is captioned ‘Auckland Harbour From Ponsonby’.
Lew commented that the orientation of the photo is looking from St Mary’s Bay near Point Erin showing a boat slip, with the premises of JT Julian & Son Boat Builders on Wynyard Wharf in the mid ground (1910>1919)
Can anyone ID the launch?
Harold Kidd Input – Reverting to the postcard, I think Chas Collings’ house is the one to the right whose verandah is visible. As for the launch, her configuration was a common one at the time. Built c1910 + or – 2 or 3 years, flush decked, “schooner rigged” with auxiliary sails, tuck stern, nice lines, a typical Auckland-built launch of the time. I think the pic and the postcard are too early for TEINA (sp) which was launched in June 1922. I can’t see why TEINA would be pulled out in St. Mary’s Bay. She was a Bayswater boat.
If the image was clearer you could count the ports etc. I do have a copy of the postcard at home but have never attempted to identify the launch.
My guess is that she’s a Ponsonby-owned launch. My mind says the first Drayton a 27 footer built in 1912 by H.N. Burgess and owned by the Walker Brothers, members of the Ponsonby Cruising Club just to the right of frame. But it could be 30 others.
Also CYA Woody’s – Remember this weekend is the Annual CYA Patio Bay Yacht Race + Launch Cruise + Christmas Party
Screen Shot 2018-11-12 at 5.24.52 PM
Screen Shot 2018-11-27 at 12.26.39 PM
Screen Shot 2018-11-27 at 12.27.05 PM

Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel – 30+ classic wooden boat photos

Posted on by
6

P1040172

P1040124

P1040185

P1040192

P1040212

P1040263

P1040252

Woody Trip To The Riverhead Hotel

Yesterday, 14 CYA Woody launches got together to visit the Riverhead Hotel, we had a fantastic turn-out with several ’new’ woodys joining in. Of course Jason Prew’s just relaunched – My Girl, had everyones attention, check out the zoom zoom photos above, that girl can move 🙂
A small tide made for some interesting manoeuvres at times, but no one came to grief (for long)
It was great to see the publican – Stephen Pepperell’s magnificently refitted woody – Volantis, alongside the wharf. She is a stunning ship, but the man does have very good taste.
The hotel was buzzing with a band in the garden bar & great food on offer – from those that I talked to, everyone had a great time. Several CYA members travelled by road, including Margaret & Bert Woolicott, our hosts in 2 weeks at Patio Bay for the Xmas weekend cruise / BBQ, which for me is the coolest event on the CYA calendar – see you there on December 1st.
ps if anyone picked up a small white & blue fender on a long rope, with brass clip – its mine – lost it overboard on the trip up, 1/2 way up the creek 😦
waitematawoodys t-shirts orders – don’t be slow in getting your order in, based on the sales to date I will probably close the order book early 😉

Helene

Posted on by
4

Screen Shot 2018-11-13 at 3.41.19 pm

Screen Shot 2018-11-13 at 3.41.40 pm

HELENE

Today’s woody is Helene, a 33’8”, 1918 Miller & Tunnage ex workboat. Helene has a 9’10” beam & draws 3’3” & is built from solid kauri.

In her trademe listing (thanks Ian McDonald) there is no mention of an engine, I assume there is one………..?

In her past life as a commercial fishing boat she worked out of Akaroa. At some stage someone has done a smart conversation for pleasure use.

Can anyone fill in the gaps as to past & what engine she has?

Harold Kidd Input – The last time she was on Trade Me was in 2010 in Picton. She then had a 80hp Toyota diesel. No comment. 1918 is wrong as she was built in December 1913 for George Currie as a private launch (in fact as an “auxiliary yacht”). I’m not sure Miller & Tunnage were the builders but it’s possible. Miller Bros launched the big Sundstrum launch NORANA the same month (probably the same tide) so it wasn’t them. She was later in Lyttelton around the late 1920s.

Waitematawoodys T-shirts – Now On Sale

LR2016 ww shirts CM

In case you missed yesterdays story, scroll down to read how to ensure you will not be mistaken for a plastic boat person 😊

 

MY GIRL and PACIFIC Relaunched – 60+ Wooden Boat Photos

Posted on by
11

IMG_0142

P1030869

PACIFIC

P1030845

P1040033

P1040039

P1030999

MY GIRL

P1030846

P1030872

P1030900

IMG_0157

MY GIRL and PACIFIC Relaunched – 60+ Wooden Boat Photos

Big day on Saturday in the woody world, we had the launching of Pacific & My Girl. Pacific is a 1917 Joe Slattery designed & built launch, owned by Nathan Herbert, & has been out all winter at Milford Crusing Club’s yard getting a major over-haul – hats off to Nathan, Pacific is a stunner, the perfect choice & mix of colours & varnish. It has been a long winter but from the smiles on everyones face, dock-side, it was all worth it. This WW link will give you a peek at what she used to look like.   https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/02/07/5898/
Well done Nathan & Steven + a big cast of helpers thru-out the project.
Second splash was Jason Prew’s – 1925, Dick Lang built ‘My Girl’, also re-launched at MCC. Jason’s re-build of My Girl has been a very long 4 years, mostly out of sight in a cold (& sometimes wet) commercial storage yard. My Girl arrived at MCC approx. 6 weeks ago for the final touches. Some of NZ’s most respected woodys were shaking their heads when Jason bought My Girl, she was so close to being a BeeHive (box of matches) restoration, but Jason has a track record of bring woodys back from the dead & that he did with My Girl. This link will show you what he started with    https://waitematawoodys.com/2014/12/12/my-girl/
To see more of the project – check out his weblog.  https://www.my-girl.co.nz/mygirl/Welcome.html
Post launching, I managed to score an invite to go for a blast on My Girl, she is fast (my lips are sealed) but I expected that, what really impressed my was the ride – very smooth. The question of the day was – are classic woodys allowed trim tabs 🙂 I seem to recall James Mobberley had some ‘additions’ on Falcon…………..
Remember click on photos to enlarge 😉
Video footage of My Girl with the throttle open 🙂
Video & photos below ex Nathan Herbert 
Screen Shot 2018-11-12 at 4.42.21 AM
Screen Shot 2018-11-12 at 4.42.48 AM

Cruise To The Riverhead Hotel

Posted on by
3

P1220871_2

P1200186

Screen Shot 2018-11-08 at 2.10.56 PM
Screen Shot 2018-11-08 at 2.11.30 PM
Screen Shot 2018-11-08 at 2.11.43 PM
CRUISE TO THE RIVERHEAD HOTEL
If you have not visited the Riverhead Hotel by water, its time you did. The Classic Yacht Association (CYA) has an afternoon cruise to the pub next Sunday (18th). These events are a lot of fun – we head up the river / creek on mass & anchor / raft-up before going ashore for a drink & a catch-up. If you have concerns about the route, just follow the boat in front of you & anchor with the others. There will be plenty of ‘old-hands’ to show you the ropes.
High tide is 16:24pm & so we aim to be heading up the ‘creek’ 2hrs b4 HW, its a small tide at 2.8m so I would imagine we will be meeting up in the Herald Island / Lucus Creek area around 2.00pm, so leaving Westhaven area around 1pm. ETA at pub is 2.30pm & departure from the pub approx 5.30pm.
If you are not a CYA member (yet) come along & see what you have been missing out on.
The photo gallery above is a snap shot of past trips – enjoy.
Ps – Wear your WW shirt 🙂
P1240008

Waitemata Woodys hits 4,000,000 views and celebrates with a gallery of over 100 classic wooden boat photos

Posted on by
21

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 9.27.39 PM

If you think being passionate about wooden boats is niche – think again, there are a lot of us out there. Waitemata Woodys has just passed 4 MILLION views and we celebrate with over 100 classic wooden boating photos

Never in a blue moon when I started this site could I have seen it becoming as popular as it has. Along the way the site has morphed to also become an awesome information source for just about anything connected to wooden boating. Some facts:
4,000,000 views
370,000 people have visited the site, most of them come back – some daily, some weekly, some just when they need to know something
2,469 stories
20,000+ photos published
A 50,000+ photo library
It wouldn’t have happened without in the early days a few fireside chats from people way more worldly in the wooden boating community than myself. The list of people that have shared their family photo albums, stories and knowledge with us is huge and  the site just wouldn’t be what it is today without these people.
I’ve made so many friends, and been fortunate to rub shoulders with a lot of you in person.
So where to from here?, I would be a lier if I said I had not considered pulling the pin a few times, its a big ask publishing a wooden boating story 365 days of the year, but for every one dark day when I’m questioning why I do it – I have 100 days where someone tells me that the first thing they do every every morning is check out Waitemata Woodys, or that they print the stories and once a week when they visit grandad they read them to him, because he is nearly blind, or when we uncover the provenance of someones boat, or when we find someones long lost family boat etc etc
Aside from thanking you all for your support and asking you to keep following Waitemata Woodys – I only have one request – please keep sending us your stories & photos – you may be thinking they won’t mean much to us, but at some stage, someone will send in something and SNAP, they match & we have the makings of a great story. Email them to   waitematawoodys@gmail.com
The following link takes you to a Waitemata Woodys story that epitomises all that’s good about the site – you wouldn’t find content like this anywhere else – it’s gold
And in answer to all the emails re when I will be doing another Waitemata Woodys t-shirt run – the answer is before Christmas, so start saving your pennies. I’ll do another post soon re taking orders 🙂
Again many thanks to everyone. I hope you all still enjoy the site as much as I do pulling it all together. Shortly I will be sharing with you some exciting news on how WW will become even more relevant to wooden boat owners, but for now I have pulled together a random selection of 101 woody photos that have appeared on the site – enjoy 🙂
Alan Houghton – founder
Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 10.40.39 PM

Mavis

Posted on by
4

Screen Shot 2018-02-15 at 7.58.00 am

IMG_2129

IMG_2130

MAVIS

Chris Manning sent in the top photo of Mavis, as built by Ernie Lane in Picton in 1919 & advised she is still alive & living in Havelock.

Greg Noble also sent me the above photos of Mavis on a ‘buck’s’ cruise (love that description of a boys trip), the photos come from Greg’s grandad, Perceval Noble, journal. 

In a previous WW story on the launch Maxie, in the WW comments section – Gavin Pascoe question if Mavis was the motor launch that took part in the early days racing at the Evans Bay Yacht & Motor Boat Club (1919 onwards),  can anyone comment / confirm this?

Check out the below flyer – cool woody events like this are why if you aren’t already, you need to join the Classic Yacht Association. As the Irish say “the craic will be mighty”

Screen Shot 2018-10-16 at 8.52.17 PM

Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

Posted on by
3

Wooden Boating VIP On The Waitemata

Today I hosted Ben Mendlowitz on Raindance, Ben is the number one wooden boat photographer in the world & shoots for just about every boating magazine there is & produces the world famous “Calendar of WoodenBoats’ + has authored dozens of books on the subject.
While in New Zealand Ben was keen to photograph some of our classic fleet, so we headed out yesterday to catch the classic division of the RNZYS Winter Series race.
Ben will have some stunning photos, I was just the driver today so only took a few, very average photos – I did however capture 2 rare events:
1. Thelma going a ground off Stanley Point – some very red faces
2. Jason Prew venturing forward of the mast on Rawene – he didn’t look comfortable 🙂
Photos below – enjoy
THE NEW ZEALAND SAILING DINGHY EXHIBITION
In case you missed it – in 2 weeks (Oct 5>7th) is the annual Classic Yacht & Launch Exhibition at the Viaduct – this year the theme is ‘The New Zealand Sailing Dinghy’ – I’ll post more on the event during the week – but right now Tony Stevenson is doing a call out to anybody interested in displaying their classic NZ designed and built sailing dinghy, yacht class information or memorabilia.
Please contact Tony Stevenson tonys@nwv.co.nz  or 021 977 456
Screen Shot 2018-09-22 at 6.44.08 PM

Mystery Launch 16-09-2018

Posted on by
2

37109735_2104998616489002_6491200923048607744_o

Mystery Launch 16-09-2018

Todays photo shows a rather pretty launch anchored in the Waihara Stream, near Cape Colville, in the Hauraki Guil & is date c.1918.
The photo comes to us via Lew Redwood’s fb
Any ideas on her name details?

Ark & Oi

Posted on by
1

41229922_2162714717384058_5747079344887431168_n

ARK and OI

Today’s photo ex Lew Redwood’s fb shows two woodys alongside the boat sheds at Wiahopo in the Far North. Wiahopo is situated at the upper reaches of the Houhora Harbour & was a big kauri gum field area.
The photo is tagged 1910-39 & attributes ownership as ‘Nortwood’s Ark & Harold Wagener’s Oi.
Harold Kidd Input – Don’t know about ARK but she’s obviously a small square bilge scow. OI is actually the cargo launch OEI, built for H.B. Wagener of Pukenui by T.M. Lane & Sons at Mechanics Bay (NOT Totara North) in 1910. She was fitted with a 7hp Standard engine (hardly zoom zoom). Dims were 36’6″x10’x2’8″. Arthur Subritzky delivered her north in November 1910 taking 25 hours Auckland-Mangonui.